RP: 21st Fighter Sq [Mission 6.0] Mists and Mysteries

Kenshin was seated within one of the Heitan's lounges having a quick bite to eat and re-reading some of the data they had been given about the Tachibana for their upcoming mission. When the call came to report to the briefing room came. Wish a regretful sigh he set aside his half-eaten meal and proceeded to meet up with the rest of the 21st Squadron.

Squadron Briefing Room

Arriving about ten minutes after the squadron was called, the Yamataian stepped into the room. Selecting one of the many empty seats, he crossed the room and sat down -- waiting for the rest of the squadron to arrive.

Elisto had been busy, using the time before to look into other matters not related to the mission, yet he still had his ICP draw up plausible routes for them to use in the event of an emergency.

When he was done, he heard the squadron call and closed up his ICP. I'll wait until after the mission, he said to himself and left his fighter behind and headed to the squadron briefing room.

He arrived just after Kenshin had, and taken a seat to wait for the briefing to commence.

Yaeko was already sitting in the briefing room, adding some last minute changes to her datapad. She looked up and smiled at the two as they entered before looking back down at her work.

Errowyn left the meeting with the captain and her aide once the security protocols were lifted and safe to do so. She made her way back into the noisy hanger to help finish up with her Kawarime.

Once that was done, she made her way to change into her flight uniform and make her way to the lounge, when the call came for the 21st to assemble in the pilot's briefing room, with the necessary mission brief padds and gear.

She walked in, nodding to those already present and took her usual seat. Bombing run practice and then a ground mission. She scowled as she was born in space and trained to deal with space combat. Not to tromp around on the ground within a gravity well.

Remembering her last time on a dirtball, she felt she would never stop breathing dirt, or eating the dang stuff that got in her food, or get rid of it, once she was back on the ship.

Ricky had left the briefing room as soon as it was possible for him to do so, relieved by the decision for the fighters to be equipped with drones in order to throw off any possible enemy radar units that might realize that the unit hadn't gone back up (if they didn't assume they had gone over the horizon). As soon as he was out, he had headed out for the hangar. While out there, he had gone over his Kawarime like a father inspecting a child's gown for graduation from highschool. He made sure that they filled it up, that they had set up the weapons right, that his systems were functioning, ran through most of the start-up list (save for actually starting the engine and taking off, of course), and then watched as the ground crew carefully loaded a Daisy M6 power-armor in to the back-seat. Shortly after was all the equipment that he would be using once they had landed and begun the ground portion of the operation.

The portion that he wasn't looking forward to at all.

However, he wasn't granted much time to pout about fighting on the ground, and instead had to head for the pre-flight briefing. He had already thrown on his flight-suit, so he had grabbed his helmet from the cockpit of his fighter, and had headed for the briefing at high speed. At a run, he nearly barreled in to the back of Errowyn, but managed to stop himself in the doorway just short of bowling her down at high speed. With that taken care of, he moved to take a seat; sitting next to Errowyn if only because he barely knew anybody in the unit well enough to really seek out a spot beside them.

Silic looked at Anne with an eyebrow raised as the fiddled with his natural arm. "So, you're not angry about what happened that night?" he asked, subconciously flexing his arm muscles in a not-so-sublte attempt to impress her.

Anne gave him a rather confused look. "Oh. Should I be?" She asked him, noticing his muscle work. It make her grin a little before pressing her thumb into inside of his elbow, which as she knew was pretty painful thing.

Silic's eyebrow spiked up at this, and a quiet groan of pain stuck itself in the back of his throat. "Uh, tell you the truth, I don't remember too much. At least before I woke up next..." Silic winced a bit as the pressure started getting to him "...Well, yes. You know what happened."

"I remember it perfectly. We talked in the hangar and then when we ran out of your booze, we went to my room." She said as her hand moved away from Silic's arm to his shoulders and back. She was no chiropractic, but she knew a lot about massage and that can make some one relax too. "We drank more there and talked more. Then we had sex. You seemed like you would like it. Oh, and I should also probably mention that the wine we drank was.... well Lorath wine. I hope it won't make you angry." She said and her voice was quieter almost as if she feared punishment.

"Lorath wine?" Silic asked, half turning towards her behind him. "What's wrong with that? You make it sound like you're at fault here?"

He did not know what Lorath wine was. Anne took a breath, trying to figure out if she should tell him or not. She worked on his shoulders and backs trying to loosen up his muscles. He was very stiff and that was bad.

"Uhh... well. Lorath wine makes.... people.... eh... it makes them relax much more easily then other alcoholic beverages." She said in the end.

Silic wobbled slightly as Anne worked, letting out a small sigh of relaxation as she kneaded the muscles in his shoulders. "I hope I didn't relax too much?" he said lightly, looking down in front of himself to indicate which organ he meant.

Anne worked with her palm between his scapulaes. She tried to keep herself busy, thinking about this conversation. He was now asking her about the sex they had. What should she tell him about that? That it felt nice? Well it did, he was gentle and nice, but should she tell him that. Her training was telling her to say that it was good, not matter how it really felled.

"Well..." She started after taking deep breath. "It was actually only time I ever saw you relaxed, I think. It was.... nice. I am sad that it was not satisfactory enough for you and you forgot about it."

"Well, at least one thing performed well that night. Are you sure it wasn't just that Lorath wine of yours that made me forget everything.I guess I was already pretty hammered when you found me in the hangar, I remember ]that much at least."

"Well I drank too, but I remember everything clearly." She answered him and moved around to his front again. She took out a stethoscope and checked his breathing. "Though you might be a forgetful drinker. Oh sorry if I assume things though!"

Silic couldn't help just have his breath quicken as the red-haired beauty stood in front of him, he angled his eyes away from her bosom through force of will and instead focused on the smell of her hair. Apricot.

"Well, maybe you'll just have to remind me." he said with out thinking about it, it was only when the words left his mouth did he realise how they could be interpreted. His breathing stopped at this point as his heart skipped a beat or two.

Anne froze for a mere moment. But then she started working again. "Breathe in and then out." she was telling him as she was listening his lungs. She then moved the cold stethoscope to his heart. She actually felt happy.

"I would be happy to." She said not looking into his eyes. She like the attention and he was giving her some. That was good.

Silic complied easily, his chest swelling, then deflating. He looked back at her through his goggles, mouth turning into a small smile for the first time that morning.

"Attention All Fighting Diamonds. Report to the squadron briefing room." Hiromi chimed over the intercoms.

Silic looked up as the voice seemed to come from everywhere in the room, then he turned back at Anne. "Show time, I guess."

Red-head doctor nodded and turned to the medicine cabinet playing with chems in it and hypospray. She then turned back and injected Silic.

"This should help and keep you on your toes." She said. It was mix chems to bring his attention, reflexes plus some stimulants. Regular drug cocktail to keep someone up. "Yes we... should probably move. We will talk more of this when we return. Hopefully this mission won't be so dangerous as the last one." She said and handed his shirt back to him.

Silic jiggled his arm where Anne injected the concoction into him, his heart rate increased from placebo. "When we return, how about we savour another mission lived?" he smiled as he put his shirt back on and rolled up his working uniform over his arms and zipped it back up.

"As you wish," she just said and started walking out toward the briefing toom. She was quite happy now. It all worked out in the end. SIlic was not displeased with her, he just drank too much and forgot. Everything seemed brighter suddenly.

- - - - -

Anne and Silic walked into the briefing room one after the other, the two separating themselves by a few seats and very deliberately not looking at each other, while leaning slightly towards the other at the same time.

The Heitan continued approaching Aqueous, per standard procedure they deployed their defense patrol of fighters and their escorts spread out.

"Bridge to 21st. Meteorological report from the surface. Bombing range has cloud cover and light rain. Ceiling is 2,000 meters, visibility is 1 mile. Winds out of the west at 15 knots.

Your fighters are prepared and waiting on Beta bay." Came across the intercom speakers.

21st Squadron Briefing Room

When the notice came through that their vehicles were ready, Yaeko stood. She pressed a button on her datapad, at which point the map from their previous briefing appeared.

"Alright everyone. First thing's first: wingman assignments. Tin Man, you're with me. Scrapyard, you're with Ghost. Cutter, you're with Spinner. Hellcat, I want you with Murasaki. Which leaves Tamahagane with Kayo." She paused to look up from her datapad around the room.

"I will be dividing us into three teams: Assault, Support, and Demolition. The demolitions team will consist only of Scrapyard and Ghost. Assault team will consist of myself, Tin Man, Hellcat, and Murasaki. The remaining for are the support team."

Yaeko turned her attention to the map that she had displayed and began pointing with her fingers as she spoke. "Once we make our bombing run at point A will we fly roughly north until we reach the mountains. At this point we will navigate the mountains in an arc shape until we reach point B. Any and all radio chatter should relate to a practice navigation mission in case they manage to intercept our communications."

"When I inform the Heitan that we are beginning our ascent, that is our signal to land. From there, unload and suit up. Once on the ground your wingman is your battle-buddy. You do not go anywhere without your battle-buddy. You do not do anything without your battle-buddy. You keep your battle-buddy alive."

"At this point we fly NOE to the installation. Laser Communications only once we are in armor and until we reach the installation. About 2km away from the enemy installation we will split up. Assault and Demolitions will continue their way south-west to the installation and, upon reaching the installation, is to remain hidden."

"Meanwhile, Support will make their way south and station themselves in an offensive position to the south-east of the installation. Once they are in positions, they will begin firing upon any members outside of the installation. Once Assault and Demolitions hears Support begin to fire, they move in."

"At this point, radio silence is no longer required. Assault Team, our primary objective at this point is to eliminate any hostiles, our secondary objective is to capture key clan members as noted by Tamahagane-Hei at our primary briefing. If you capture anyone, immobilize them and leave them to be dealt with later."

"Demolitions Team, your primary objective is to disable the ship, your secondary objective is to keep the computers intact, Vampire Class first and Henkei second. Meanwhile, Support Team, your objective is simple, shoot and kill, secondary objective is to avoid killing key clan members."

"The final phase involves the complex itself. Demolitions, once you have finished disabling the ships, your next objective is breach the complex. If you have leftover GRPE charges, rig one of the two entrances with the explosives, if not then you are to aid assault team in clearing our hostiles."

"When the hostiles are cleared out then Demolitions Team is to blow a hole for us to enter through, whether with leftover charges or with weapons. Once our path is clear, Assault and Demolitions enter immediately and begin killing and capturing hostiles. Move room by room and clear out hostiles, leave prisoners to be retrieved by Support Team."

"Support Team, once we enter, your are to begin dealing with prisoners. Retrieve all prisoners that we have captured thus far, give them any medical attention needed to keep them alive, and then Cutter and Spinner will join Assault and Demolitions in clearing out the complex while the other two keep track of the prisoners. Once inside the complex, however, your main priority is still rounding up captives, administering necessary first aid, and then transporting them over to the other prisoners."

Yaeko turned and directed her last statement to Anne. "Because you're the flight surgeon I kept you out of direct combat on purpose. If you get injured bad, there's no one here to save you, so your job is to give support fire and keep prisoners alive. However, if you are needed to administer medical attention to a squadron member, then you are to do so."

Yaeko then turned her attention to Yoshi. "Cutter, if Anne needs to give someone medical attention your only priority becomes keeping her alive."

"Are there any questions?"

Silic raised his hand nervously and waved slightly. "Uh, yeah, hi. Did you say land, and suit up, because I thought this was a fighter squadron? Also, does punching count as immobilizing them?"

Silic, accompanied by Anne, had been absent from the earlier briefing and all this was news to him. Although, judging by the look on his face he wasn't impressed by what he'd heard of it so far.

Errowyn listened to the assignment growing more and more paler, really beginning to hate this assignment. She was a pilot, not a ground pounder with power armor. That was for the soldiers and the last time she operated a power armor suit was during the quick hands on familiarization of the power suit and the test to graduate from the Creation facilities.

Even though the Instructors had tried to keep the scores from getting out, she had seen her's and they was right on the bottom, dead last. By one point lower, she'ld've been slotted for retraining.

Errowyn sighed as she looked over the mission profile for the bombing run and then the sweep around to the clandelstine ground landing and then the attack.

"Miaow?! Assualt?!" Errowyn gasped outloud at hearing she would be part of the attacking forces. "Who did I make upset at me?"

Anne blinked. SHe then blinked several more times. Suit-up? Land? Demolition? Prisoner-taking? What was going on? She was confused and horrified of idea being part of some infantry action. Yes she received basic training that ever member of Yamatai military gets, but that was supposed to be only for emergency.

"Ugh... ma'am." Anne said quietly. "We were in med-bay. I still do not know what is going on." She said, but it almost sounded as apology.

"Right," Yaeko responded to Anne and Silic. "Long story short. There's an enemy base marked by the red dot on the map. We need to destroy said base. We're going to be conducting a fake bombing run training drill at point A, navigate to point B, at which point we will land, suit up in Daisies that will be in our back seats, and go blow up the base. All of the information that I gave previously are the specifics."

"Wait, if Daisies are in the back seats then where to I si-" Silic's face dropped into a 'you gotta be kidding me' expression as the answer dawned on him. "Whoever thought up this plan is stupid and doing it wrong."

Akemi listened to Silic's reaction to Yaeko's briefing.

"Well Tin Man if you had been awake for the briefing you would have known it. I realize it was not your fault. Relax, its not like you are flying into combat. A simple practice bombing run and then landing. About the trickiest part of the flying is going to be the run through the mountains. But if you aren't man enough for it, you can always set your fighting for automatic and let it fly it." she retorted.

Elisto was still being rather quiet, throughout the entire briefing, he was listening to the exchanges but his mind was focused on how the responses were and how they were being taken.

His reasoning was because he was gauging his own squadmates to see if anyone was acting strangely, even though Konpeki had already done her checks, it just how he was - he always liked making absolutely certain of things, perhaps it was a fault of his.

"If it were that simple then surely they'd have suited up a dozen fine infantry lasses and put them up for this mission." Silic replied flatly, before clapping his hands together and perking up.

"Actually, lets run with that." His hands shifted to point at his temples his head turning to survey the room as he spoke, his voice loaded with sarcasm. "Man, thirty seconds in the room and already we have a better plan, I am just brilliant. Hey, whichever dumbass they have on Tactical up there, they should give me their job."

Yaeko shot Silic a dirty look and continued to glare at him as she spoke telepathically. "Shut up or you're going to find Atsui demoting you again. Don't worry about the mission, I'll have your back the whole time."

The comment from Silic caused Elisto to turn his head slowly toward the man, his eyes narrowed, and his expression would make some think he might've been sizing up the soldier for a hunt. Though the comment angered him, he kept that anger well hidden and his expression despite being one of possible sizing, was in a way that could still be considered neutral.

Lynn had remained silent for the duration of the discussion, hardly hearing much of anything. She was too busy obsessing over her demotion, stopping for a moment here and there to process what she had heard from the others.

She opened her mouth to rebuke Silic, but then snapped it shut. It would be better if she just never dealt with the Nepleslian anymore. That was probably the best plan.

"If it's all settled, then shouldn't we get going?" Lynn said meekly, eager to get the mission over with.

Silic looked around the room again as nobody laughed at his lame joke, fingers still pointed at respective sides of his head like a pair of weird antennae. He shrugged.

"What? I'm probably about to get fired. I can't have gallows humour?" he said, turning back to the front, hand returning to a more normal position. "Tough crowd."